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David Greene, Rene Montagne and Steve Inskeep

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The nation's most popular morning news program, Morning Edition brings you wide-ranging news, features and interviews from NPR and the WKU Public Radio news team. Start your day with the latest national, international, and regional news each weekday morning, with local host Joe Corcoran.

Produced and distributed by NPR in Washington, D.C., Morning Edition draws on reporting from correspondents based around the world, and producers and reporters in locations in the United States. This reporting is supplemented by NPR Member station reporters across the country as well as independent producers and reporters throughout the public radio system.

Morning Edition is hosted by Steve Inskeep, Rene Montagne and David Greene.

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. For a Montana woman who lost her Christmas shopping money in J.C. Penney, Black Friday sure looked like a bad deal. Carrie McNeese had stashed $300 in a plain envelope, along with a few receipts and her grandchildren's clothing sizes.

Those few clues, combined with a surveillance tape, helped Penney's loss-prevention supervisor identify the shopper who dropped the envelope, and reunite her with her cash. Now, that is a return policy.

The paper wrote of horse-drawn carriages in New York's Central Park, calling them "hansom cabs." That's wrong, since the carriages have four wheels. Hansom cabs have two. A Times investigation reveals a reader noted this mistake in a letter to the editor in 1985. The paper published the letter but went on to repeat the error for decades.

One hundred years ago Wednesday, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team were the first to reach the South Pole on skis. Veteran traveler Felicity Aston is nearing another first: becoming the first woman to ski across Antarctica alone.

Reached by NPR by satellite phone early Wednesday morning, Aston was about a degree and a half — 100 miles — from the South Pole. For Aston, a degree is about four days skiing. She's been skiing for 20 days. Overall, Aston will travel about 1,000 miles.

In the middle of a debt crisis and with a French presidential election looming, lawmakers from the left and right found something to agree on: prostitution. After years of taking a relaxed approach to prostitution, France may be about to outlaw the practice - not on the seller's part, but on the buyer's. Eleanor Beardsley has the story.

Hear ye, hear ye: The court of public opinion will now come to order in the class-action suit by disturbed football fans against dopey football players who act like imbeciles in the end zone after scoring a touchdown.

Your honor, the plaintiffs call to the stand a man of great taste, good manners and exquisite judgment –– namely, me.

The federal government will stop minting unwanted $1 coins, the White House said Tuesday. The move will save an estimated $50 million a year.

Earlier this year, we reported on the mountain of $1 coins sitting unused in government vaults. The pile-up — an estimated 1.4 billion coins — was caused by a 2005 law that ordered the minting of coins honoring each U.S. president.

A Nativity scene in Caracas features the traditional baby Jesus born in a manger. But those standing nearby include a figure of President Hugo Chavez. The scene also makes a case that Chavez should qualify as a wise man. It includes a miniature cable car, symbolizing infrastructure improvements for which the president wants to be known.

Tommaso began life as a stray cat on the streets of Rome until he was rescued by a wealthy widow. The 94 year old had no children, according to ABC News. So when she died last month, she left her entire fortune to the cat. That's $13 million.

In Florida, there's a different type of honey mystery. State and local authorities are investigating the loss of more than 2,300 beehives in Brevard County. There is a break in the case. Officials have identified an insecticide commonly used to kill roaches, ticks and fleas. It was found in a container used to feed the bees in the hives. The beekeeper says the loss has cost him more than half a million dollars. Now officials need to find the culprit who fed the bees the poison. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.